


The Art of Being Ordinary Men

by YolandaZb



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Implied dom/sub relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 23:27:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18303890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YolandaZb/pseuds/YolandaZb
Summary: A workplace of predominantly men is hatefully unbalanced and disgusting, but Bond and Mallory are happy to have it figured out. Human evilness and our animal instincts, as distasteful as they are, is the only reason why us as a specious is capable of beauty.





	The Art of Being Ordinary Men

**Author's Note:**

> This is more of a melancholy drifting of thoughts than a real story, but the relationship between Mallory and Bond is so fascinatingly complicated to me. I've been reading political philosophy for class recently and some of the thoughts are in this article. English is not my first language and I have not betaed it carefully, so bare with me if it's a bit hard to read. I just love them.   
> (I really should be working on a paper instead of doing this, but well, there you go.)

“You may not be aware of this, but you have a strong presence in places.”  
“And good for me that I am not a field agent.”  
***   
Bond couldn't help but smiled to himself. Mallory, this bureaucrat. He knows that the new M is not some mediocre nonsense - he has to be smart and political enough to be in his place, but Mallory surely knows how to disguise as a bland and boring middle-aged man. He is intrinsically dangerous and intimidating, not worthy of his trust, but for now, at least, Bond knows he is of some use to him. Before M… dies… his M, of course, she must have said something to Mallory that he is giving him some credit, enough that he puts up with his mediocre performance.   
He is no longer the best agent, and he had long accepted that deep in his heart.  
But really, Bond cannot even confidently claim himself that he is ready to be out in the field. 53 years. 53 years of not belonging to anywhere and living off adrenaline and competition with others and himself is too long. It is no secret that he is a man of addiction, addicting to danger and adrenaline to distract himself from self-destructive behaviors. Olivia was the closest of a mother like figure to him. Their relationship was strictly professional, obviously, but time and timing is truly magical. In his 30s, he was established enough not to have mistaken M’s care and attention, but still not cold and pessimistic enough to close off himself completely from anyone that’s interested. Mallory is indefinitely different from M. Mallory gives off a sense of Russian gloominess in his way of conduct - he is careful yet ambitious, calculative yet bland, a mixture of moral, honor and pure ambition and greed - human nature indeed.  
As much as he disrespects rules, Bond doesn't hate establishments as much as people believe he does. It is the greed and the ambition of human being that makes human interesting - the animalistic side of nature, the unsuppressed sparks deep in the eyes, and the lust gave off through daily conducts. These features is the light of any soul, shining through their social masks. Yet he is fully aware himself how destructive men can be with pure animalistic instincts - he’s adopted such instincts to fight others’ all his life. Then it comes rules and establishments to restrain the destructiveness. The rules, the pretending, the occasional gentleness as a projection of true emotion or merely a show of cultural cultivation. All of them surrounds a man like Mallory like a mist, only to be seen through so that dime yet non-negligible light of soul could be found.  
This is what Bond loves about Mallory.   
He is finally not to be drawn only to the beauty of the appearance, of the intelligence, and of the brightness of one’s soul. Q probably sees his behavior as honorable; Moneypenny with admiration and hopes to become a great agent herself. But with the endless pulling between his dirty deeds that he has to carry out in name of the country and the moral agents he had adopted at school as an “honorable English man”, he had finally starts to understand the beauty of gray and middleground. He is never honorable. He starts to regard ordinary the greatest trait of human behavior, as to maintain that requires great self-control. The ability to suppress one’s instinct to break the path and to do even the smallest evil is never praised in literature, but he believes that they are the cornerstone of all civilization. If one can channel such greed and ambition through establishment, as M had and Mallory is, that’s impressive.   
Forget about heroism.   
***  
Bond sometimes think to himself how much of this interest to groundedness and ordinariness is the remaining of that lost childhood yelling for his attention. Seriously, seeing how unstable them orphan recruits are, MI6 should have learned that they are indeed not the best recruits. A tiny bit of warmth is enough to keep them in hand, but as they cling on to that sense of belonging so much, they are great risks from the beginning. Just look at Silva. Bond is sure that M treated Silva with no less love, care yet professionalism as when she was treating himself. Probably too much love that Silva was too consumed in this warmth. It’s the only source of groundedness in his memory, thus feeling of betrayal is so strong when necessary procedures had to be carried out.   
With Mallory, Bond believes that such affection from a feminine figure as M had is not to be expected. And indeed it did not happen. Golding was right in portraying men together as competitive beasts only to be restrained by culture and rules. When Mallory found out that rules are not enough to tame him and to show power, though, he is not shy of using other means. Sex is game, is competition, and one of the means to tame a wild animal like himself. It is also the only mean that Bond considers to be acceptable. He cannot accept anyone to conduct aftercare for him during his drop of adrenaline after missions is a sign of weakness; but giving total submission to someone he considers worthy of and having himself taken care of through sex - that sounds more acceptable.   
Of course, Mallory knows what it really was, but he keeps his riding crop steady and controlled in his hands whatsoever. He cannot deny that having one of the symbols of masculinity under him is satisfying indeed, and this domination gives as much thrill to him as Bond experiences. He tries to play nice in the office setting despite being intimidating by nature. however, no less wounded by the horror of the field and tested by the repulsiveness of the power politics, his lust and anger and desire to control has to go somewhere. Concerns about this relationship to be more than sexual is unnecessary, since Bond’s pride will not allow it and that he himself will not delusional. He hasn't had such a perfect sex partner in ages, and this is more than he ever hoped.  
***  
A workplace of men is hatefully unbalanced and dangerous, but they are lucky to have it figured out.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. I am deeply found of Russian culture myself and to find that Ralph Fiennes speaks Russian is the best thing in the world. With Craig’s physical resemblance to Putin and everything, I find strange amusement in this “Russian” parity. No intention to disrespect. I love both and Russia so much.   
> 2\. Lord of the Flies - Golding A political fiction depicting a crowd of English school children’s survival story on a deserted island.


End file.
